Miscellaneous

My Take on the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007

Posted on April 30, 2008
Back when I still believed the government was serious about addressing the rising cost of higher education and inequalities with regard to access, I received an email update regarding the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007. "Finally," I thought, "a law that might help people attend college!"I read through the law, I read the summaries, and I read updates from nonprofits whose very job is supposedly to protect and advocate student/debtor interests...

"Deep" Thought #11: The Denial of Death Benefits is "Good News"

Posted on April 29, 2008
Recently, as the Americans for Truth [sic] About Homosexuality reported, a domestic partner bill for same-sex couples was defeated in Illinois.This bill would have... well, why don't I sit back and let The Illinois Family Institute explain (as reported on the website for Americans for Truth [sic]) the "good news" on the bill's defeat:"You made a difference! Thank you for taking action on this bill!Thanks in part to your phone calls and emails, the Illinois House of Representatives in Springfield voted 43 to 67 (with 1 voting ?present?) yesterday, defeating HB 4731, a bill that would have allowed homosexual partners of public school teachers to qualify as surviving spouses for purpose of survivor and death benefits...

Pregnant Men and Caricatures

Posted on April 28, 2008
Now that a transman is receiving worldwide attention for becoming pregnant, conservatives and bigots everywhere are, per their usual hyperbolic tendency, declaring this "tragedy" to be a sign that the end is near.To start, I don't know what it's like to be a transgender person...

Day of Silence: Anti-Gay Groups Miss the Point

Posted on April 24, 2008
Tomorrow is the National Day of Silence that many youth are observing. For those who are unfamiliar with this day, the Day of Silence is "a student-led day of action when concerned students, from middle school to college, take some form of a vow of silence to bring attention to the name-calling, bullying and harassment -- in effect, the silencing -- experienced by LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) students and their allies...

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Silly Bigot, Newborn Babies Don't Know How to Talk

Posted on April 23, 2008
Concerned Woman for America Kenneth Ervin, in a recent propaganda piece, recounts a... "unique" testimonial witnessing of a baby born to a transman.Take a quick second to read it.Miraculous, right?Neither Ervin nor the media multitudes in attendance express shock at the obvious conclusion of the testimonial:Babies born to transgender men are prodigies!It's true...

Observations from Watching Straight People Bowl

Posted on April 23, 2008
Something that yuppie heterosexual groups of friends like to do is play co-ed sports together. Sometimes this phenomenon occurs in organized sports' leagues, and other times this occurs in less formal settings. One such frequent informal setting is the bowling alley...

Deep Thought #10: Marriage Defenders Are Right About Everything Especially When They Change Their Argument in the Middle of the Game

Posted on April 22, 2008
Shoutout to Ed Brayton for highlighting an odd article on WorldNetDaily:"Gay' study: Marriage makes little difference'Same-sex relationships must be unique, not like oppressive heterosexual norms'"Before I delve into the cockles of stupidity here, let's all remember this article where we saw how marriage defenders often arrogantly and amusingly believe that "studies show" that they are right about everything...

A "Preventing Homosexuality" Tutorial

Posted on April 21, 2008
After reading Focus on the Family's so very helpful guide on recognizing whether your spouse is a homo, I came across this handy-dandy "Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality" written by Joseph and Linda Nicolosi- founders of National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality...

Benefits and Protections of Marriage #8 and #9: Divorce

Posted on April 18, 2008
This article is part of my series on legal and economic benefits and protections of marriage. Rather than limiting discussions surrounding marriage equality to abstract debates, it is helpful to point out the tangible ways that same-sex couples are harmed by an unequal legal system...

RightWing Roundup #2: Cranks, Cake, Equality, and Suckers

Posted on April 17, 2008
1. When You Can't Get Published in Real Scientific Journals, Just Start Your Own!Evolution denialist group "Answers in Genesis" recently produced the first issue of its, ahem, "professional, peer-reviewed technical journal." (Those fine fellows over at denialism blog, per usual, do a brilliant job deconstructing it)...

"Deep" Thought #9: Studies Inconclusively Prove That Marriage Defenders Are Right About Everything!

Posted on April 16, 2008
Defender of the Traditional Family Fitz has an interesting self-contradictory claim. Before I begin, I should state here that I don't write these articles to pick on Fitz and company. I write them to point out examples of faulty arguments that many marriage defenders use...

Some Telling Ads?

Posted on April 15, 2008
Upon perusing uber-right wing website WorldNetDaily I can't help but wonder if the advertisements are a greater reflection on the average readership. (During this article, I am not going to include links because WorldNetDaily likely is paid for every click, and hey, who wants to support right-wing propaganda?)...

Book Review: The Left Hand of Darkness

Posted on April 14, 2008
After reading a series of politically intense nonfiction books, I recently decided it was time to lose myself in some fiction. Desiring more of an escape than the type of novel I usually read, I picked up a cheap yellow-paged old copy of Ursula Le Guin's science fiction novel The Left Hand of Darkness and delved into another galaxy...

57th Carnival of Feminists

Posted on April 13, 2008
A quick note from Leftist Gender Warrior:The 57th Carnival of Feminists is up! This Carnival includes a link to my "Concerned" Man Tutorial.Check out the post for some fun feminist reading.[Insert evil cackle]

I Know My Kid Will Make Up For What I Never Was

Posted on April 11, 2008
While nursing a recent hangover, I had the misfortune of stumbling upon a new reality show starring Danny Bonaduce: I Know My Kid's a Star. The premise? A bunch of stage parents (mostly moms) tote their "talented" children through various challenges in hopes that their child (mostly girls) will become the next child star...

Revisiting Title IX

Posted on April 10, 2008
Recently, I posted a student's letter regarding Title IX. I am thankful that a commenter came out of the woodwork to bring up many complaints and generalizations about the law, even though we disagreed on some issues. His comments inspired me to finally sit down and write about Title IX and women's athletics- two areas I feel strongly about and have been wanting to write about for some time...

Unimportant Breaking News from the Right Roundup

Posted on April 09, 2008
1. See Ya Next TuesdayA new book has come out documenting Republican presidential contender John McCain's notorious temper. One particularly shocking example of an alleged exchange between McCain and his wife Cindy follows:"At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, 'You're getting a little thin up there...

Tagged

Posted on April 09, 2008
Fannie's Room has been tagged by the always-entertaining Grace the Spot. (I'm sorta going to break the following rules. See, I've sorta been meaning to write a review of this really shitty book I read, but I'm debating as to whether it's even worth the effort...

All That for a Wrestling Program

Posted on April 08, 2008
Via the Title IX Blog, a letter in the Notre Dame student paper from college student John Witty:"When I started reading Greg Yatarola's column, "The tyranny of Title IX," it was April 2nd, 2008, but when I looked up from my paper it was 1950. The world had gone black and white, Notre Dame hadn't admitted women, and apparently, people cared about wrestling...

Open Letter to My (Un)Favorite Homophobe

Posted on April 07, 2008
Dear "Jose," Remember when you wrote this? "Homosexual ?marriage?? What nonsense! Committed homosexual relationship? Ridiculous! They need to stop those practices as quickly as possible! We don?t want our kids learning about depraved behaviors! Keep it to yourselves...

MLK, Wright-gate, and Racism

Posted on April 04, 2008
40 years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. It was very clear, during the time King was active, what racism was. It was overt and it was sanctioned by our government. While King's messaging encompassed a wide range of social justice issues, today I want to focus on racial issues and how what is conceptualized as "racism" is being co-opted by...

"Deep" Thought #8: A History "Lesson"

Posted on April 03, 2008
Throughout the history of the world, many civilizations have existed. Not all of these civilizations have existed forever, though. Some of them have died. Many people today, in fact, are saying that our civilization is on the decline. All the signs are here!At this juncture, it is of the utmost importance for us to be asking ourselves what common bond history's lost peoples had with each other that led to their mass extinction...

American Apathy?

Posted on April 02, 2008
Writing this post was difficult for me. It is difficult to criticize the war in Iraq without in some way implicitly condemning those who fight in the war. Because I am not (allowed to be) in the military, I have the privilege of saying that the war does not affect my everyday life too much...

Protections and Benefits of Marriage #5 and #6: Income Taxes

Posted on April 01, 2008
Want to know another way same-sex couples are tangibly and specifically harmed by unequal marriage rights? Taxes.They have increased complexity and higher fees when filing tax returns (#5), when compared to opposite-sex married couples.As Law Professor Anthony Infanti writes,"Because many states use the federal income tax as a base for their own income taxes and the federal government does not recognize same-sex relationships, same-sex couples in legally recognized relationships cannot simply use their federal returns as a basis for their state filings (as different-sex married couples can)...

The Case of the Invisible Ideology

Posted on April 01, 2008
What is objectivity?Wikipedia has a pretty standard definition of the concept, saying "objectivity addresses what reality is and what we know about it." When referring to the state of being "objective" within this article, I am referring to the state of having the ability to discern what reality is...

Tutorial: Do You Have a "Homosexual" Spouse?

Posted on March 31, 2008
To any married members in the audience today, I'd like to bring your attention to a very, um, "helpful" piece put out by Focus on the Family. It's an article about recognizing and dealing with having a "homosexual" spouse.Is it just me or are Focus on the Family's "telltale signs" that you have a "homosexual" spouse really just "telltale signs" that your spouse of any orientation is fucking around on you?Observe...

Stuff Lesbians Like

Posted on March 28, 2008
I have to share this blog I happened to stumble across. I'm actually pretty jealous that I didn't think of doing this first. Dammit!It's similar to the Stuff White People Like blog.

Fannie's L Word Season 5 Awards!

Posted on March 28, 2008
Well, another season of The L Word has come and gone. I'd like to commemorate the occasion with some awards. If some of you out there don't watch this show, sorry. Just nod and laugh like you know what's going on.Best CharacterJenny.Among other memorable quotes, this woman told a fuckwad guy "I will not continue this conversation with you until you remove the piece of snot that is dangling from your nose...

In the "Just Keep Telling Yourself That" Category

Posted on March 27, 2008
In the words of "ex-gay" John Smid:"I'm sorry, but my wife's vagina is enough. I'm going to be honest. It's enough. It is enough for me. If it is not enough for me, then that's my problem. You know, I really have to be honest about that. God created her for my fit, he created that and I need to honor and respect my wife...

A "Concerned" Man Tutorial

Posted on March 27, 2008
Anti-feminists today are up in arms about the advances women have made in society. Because for so long men controlled the public sphere, these anti-feminists decry how women's entry into the public sphere is "ruining everything." Recently, a couple of men have voiced strong concerns about the dangers of feminism...

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